Control of bombardment energy and energetic species toward a superdense titanium nitride film

Journal Article · Mon Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. A, International Journal Devoted to Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1116/1.3490018· OSTI ID:22054003

Zhigang, Xie; Allen, Adolph Miller; Mei, Chang; Wang, Phillip; Tzajing, Gung ^[1]

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1. SSG/MDP, Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, California 95054 (United States)

TiN deposited by dc magnetron sputtering has been widely used as a hard mask material for dielectric patterning in multilevel Cu interconnects. Typically inside a ''poison-mode'' regime, the film density is 4.5-4.9 g/cm{sup 3}. The microstructure, varying from columnar structure to nanocrystalline, is controlled by both thermodynamics and surface kinetics through ionization, substrate bias, target voltage, etc. A relatively low density film can be correlated with a porous columnar structure, low mechanical robustness, and weak resistance to plasma etching. However, with controlled growth, an applied substrate bias does not create resputtering and crystal defects. Instead, the authors create film with a maximum density of 5.3 g/cm{sup 3}. In this high density film, carrier scatterings through grain boundary are greatly suppressed and the film resistivity is as low as 95 {mu}{Omega} cm, which brings additional benefits as a conductive capping layer. As it is deposited at room temperature, the process minimizes the thermal budget to the underlying low-k dielectric materials to be patterned.

• OSTI ID: 22054003
• Journal Information: Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. A, International Journal Devoted to Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films, Journal Name: Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. A, International Journal Devoted to Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 28; ISSN 1553-1813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DENSITY
DEPOSITION
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
ETCHING
GRAIN BOUNDARIES
IONIZATION
MAGNETRONS
NANOSTRUCTURES
POROUS MATERIALS
SCATTERING
SPUTTERING
SUBSTRATES
THERMODYNAMICS
THIN FILMS
TITANIUM NITRIDES